"Danny where is your bike?" Lindsay asked as he let her into his apartment for the first time in over three months.
"Sold it," he replied like it was the easiest thing in the world to say.
She was shocked, he loved his bike, "What? Why would you do that?"
"I have a few things I need."
"But you loved your bike."
He stopped his movement around her, and looked at her, "No, I LOVE you and our daughter."
"But why did you sell it?"
"Because I need to get us a SUV."
"But…"
"Montana, it's okay. I'm okay with it; I did it before I came to you. I'm not that guy anymore; I wanna be better than that. I wanna be someone you know you can depend on. I wanna be the dad that our daughter is embarrassed to let around her friends. I wanna be the guy you both deserve."
"I thought you were pretty great before," she said softly, smiling a little.
He kissed her forehead, "No I wasn't," he said, "I've hurt you. Even before, you know, I hurt you. Shut you out, made you think you weren't the only thing that mattered to me. I'm just tryin' to play catch up, doing things that need to be done for our family, because you two ARE my family. Before I went through my day, just to get to the end of it to come home and get drunk. Now I go through my day to try to make you happy, to repair the damage I've caused. If getting' rid of my bike helps my family, then I can live with that."
"Dan, you don't need to change yourself for us," she said softly, "We just need you to be here for us. Need to know that you won't leave us again when things get too much for you."
"I could never make that mistake again," he said, "My heart can't take it."
She looked up at him with tears in her eyes, raised up on her tiptoes and kissed his lips softly. He wrapped his arms around her, and deepened the kiss, she pulled away suddenly.
"I'm sorry," he said softly, "I've just missed kissing you without it feeling weird or whatever."
"It wasn't weird," she smiled shyly at him, "Just surprised me. I think it might be okay if you kissed me more."
He smiled at her, "Yeah?" he dipped his head to hers slowly, waiting for her to pull away if she wanted. She didn't. He kissed her softly, gently, lovingly. He pulled away, not wanting to scare her off, "I love you, Lindsay Monroe." He whispered, looking in her eyes.
"I know," she sighed hugging him burying her face in his shoulder, because she really did, "I love you too, Dan," she said in less than a whisper.
But he heard anyway, and he squeezed his eyes shut, relishing in the love of woman he loved more than his own life. There was no other place he wanted to be.
"At least you didn't get rid of the pool table," she mumbled into his chest.
His mouth moved up in a grin, "Couldn't, holds to many memories."